Contact:

Markus Fischer, Project P.I.
Stefan Halle, Project P.I.
Teja Tscharntke, Project P.I.
Wolfgang Weisser, Project P.I.

Rationale

The focus of this project is to study effects of invertebrates, analyzing the above-ground and below-ground fauna (e.g. ecology of rodents). Also it works on plant-insect interactions, in particular plant-pollinator relationship and the plant-pathogen interaction.

Hence, this project has four main objectives:

• First, the subproject analyses the effect of plant diversity on different consumer groups, in particular invertebrates, vertebrates and plant pathogenic fungi,
• Second, we will, together with the subproject decomposers, continue to experimentally manipulate the presence of aboveground insects, belowground insects, molluscs, nematodes, earthworms and voles in subplots to analyse how plant diversity influences the effects of consumer groups on processes such as community productivity, plant species composition and microbial respiration.
• Third, we will use statistical modelling to construct interaction webs and synthesize the data on the relationships between plant diversity consumer abundances and ecosystem processes. The contribution of consumers to C-storage and nutrient cycling in plots of different plant diversity will be quantified and integrated into the ecosystem models constructed by other subprojects.,
• Fourth, several mechanistic hypotheses concerning the relationship of plant diversity with insect abundance, pollination, herbivory, plant pathogens and nutrient cycling will be tested.

The results will provide a detailed picture of how plant diversity affects plant – consumer interactions and how these interactions feed back on nutrient cycling and the plant community itself.

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